Hi Everyone-

DS spent his first night in hospital last night. We live in a Rural area and have a small district hospital.

I had been feeding DS at around midday. I noticed he was vomiting alot during his feed (thanks Michael your post is so spot on). I went to burp him and he starting to cough and couldn't get his breath. I took this to be the first sign that the cough had started. It was pretty scary seeing his eye bulged wide and no breath going in. (Later in hospital I realise this wasn't the start of the cough just choking on the mucus that is a symptom of the WC). Once he got his breath he seemed stable (which is another symptom of WC - kids actually look fit as a fiddle in during the illness) so I called the hosptial and they told me to bring him in.

I drove him (calmly-don't know how I managed that) to the hospital and took him into emergency. They triaged him straight away because he was a 6 week old and because he is in the contagious stage. (We started him on anti-biotics on Wednesday night and he will be contagious for 5 days). In casualty they separated him from everyone else until he was seen by the paediatrician. They admitted him for observation and we were taken to the childrens ward and put into isolation. DH had arrived at hospital by this stage too.

In our room we had a monitor for his oxygen levels and his pulse. That alone allowed me to get a couple of hours sleep overnight because for 3 nights I hadn't slept for staying up and watching him breath. One thing I noticed was that his cold symptoms seemed to be easing (with WC you look like you have a cold but it's actually a symptom of the WC so anti-biotics can actually help to clear this up). Also we were injection saline drops into his nose and this was making a big difference to his breathing.

I'm going to post this and then type another post so I don't lose what I have typed so far.